Batting

BOSTON, Mass.—No. 8 UMass Boston scored six runs over the first two innings and got six innings of one-run ball form Tylor Arruda (New Bedford, Mass.) en route to an 11-2 victory over visiting Babson College in non-conference baseball action on Thursday afternoon at Monan Park.

Babson, which had its 11-game winning streak snapped, drops to 18-8 on the year, while UMass Boston improves to 20-5 overall with its ninth consecutive victory. Thursday's contest was also a rematch of last year's NCAA Tournament Harwich Regional final, which the Beacons won 11-8.

Senior Ryan Arena (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) went 2-for-4 and smacked his seventh home run of the year, while junior Brian McHale (Ramsey, N.J.) doubled and scored for the Beavers. Sophomore Aidan Scott (South Glastonbury, Conn.) singled in his first three at-bats and finished the day going 3-for-4.

First-year Ben Aleixo (North Smithfield, R.I.), who failed to get out of the second inning, took the loss to drop to 1-1 after giving up five runs on five hits in his first career start. Classmate Peter Feinman (Virginia Beach, Va.) tossed five strong innings of relief allowing just one run on three hits while striking out two.

Senior Dave Murphy (Plymouth, Mass.) hit a three-run homer and scored three times, while junior Kyle Boudrias (Medford, Mass.) went 2-for-4 with a double and three RBI for the Beacons. Classmate Nick Herzog (Riverhead, N.Y.) also drove in a pair of runs in support of Arruda (1-1), who scattered seven hits and struck out five in addition to giving up just one unearned run.

McHale led off with a double and scored on senior Mark Webber's (Norwell, Mass.) two-out single to give the Green and White a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. UMass Boston quickly erased its deficit as junior Eddie Riley (Quincy, Mass.) led off the bottom of the frame with an infield single, sophomore Ryan McCormick (Cumberland, R.I.) walked and Murphy followed with a three-run homer to left.

Arruda worked out of a bases-loaded jam with a line drive double play in the top of the second and the Beacons put up three more runs in their half of the inning to make it 6-1. Babson stranded two more in the top of the seventh and UMass Boston made them pay with four runs in the bottom half of the inning, which included a bases-clearing double by Boudrias to extend the margin to 10-1.

Arena led off the top of the eighth with a solo blast down the left field line before the Beacons tacked on an unearned run in the bottom of the frame for the final margin.

Babson is back in action on Friday when it opens up a three-game series with MIT at 3:30 p.m. in Cambridge. UMass Boston hosts UMass Dartmouth in a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 12 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 23-13 all-time against UMass Boston but have dropped all four matchups between the teams over the last two seasons.
• Arena's homer was the 20th of his career moving him into third place on the program's all-time list behind only Teddy Dzuiba '06 (28) and Chris Kucher '13 (22).
• Webber extended his hitting streak to 14 games with his first-inning RBI single, while sophomore Jake Oliger (Newtown, Conn.) stretch his hitting streak to 12 with a second-inning base hit.
• Babson's two runs on Thursday matched a season low and are its fewest since a 7-2 loss to New Paltz in Florida back on March 19.